Claudia Isabel Emerson

Claudia Isabel Emerson is Professor at McMaster University and the Founding Director of the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation (IEPI), where she leads a multidisciplinary team of experts in bioethics, epidemiology, public health, law, anthropology, and philosophy. Dr. Emerson has worked for more than 15 years with international stakeholders, examining ethical challenges and policy gaps in global health research. She is an expert in data ethics and governance, the management of infectious disease, and ethics issues that emerge from the introduction and adoption of novel technologies.

She is a member of Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats, an international network launched at McMaster with scientists, clinical health and medical specialists, engineers, social scientists, and other experts working collaboratively to prevent future pandemics and mitigate global health threats. Dr. Emerson serves in many advisory capacities relating to public health and innovation, including initiatives that support gene drive research. With colleagues from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust, and the Gates Foundation, she developed Principles for Gene Drive Research in 2017. She was a member of the Core Working Group that developed the second edition of the World Health Organization’s Guidance Framework for Testing Genetically Modified Mosquitoes, published in 2021.

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